It was, however, a splendidly gutsy silver from Lizzie Armitstead that lifted the spirits on a miserable rain sodden afternoon on The Mall and gave us the first real taste of how rapturously any British success will be received in the coming days.

In a wonderfully aggressive and animated women’s race staged in monsoon conditions which left the road flooded in the more rural parts of Surrey, Armitstead and her Great Britain colleagues did everything in their power to topple the greatest female rider of their generation.

Ultimately they did not quite succeed but make no mistake this was a silver medal won and not a gold medal lost.

“I’m just so happy that I committed to the breakaway,” Armitstead said. “Anybody who knows cycling will know that Marianne is the best rider in the world on most kinds of courses. My only regret is that I didn’t try to jump her earlier in the sprint but generally she is faster than most girls on the circuit so I am chuffed with silver. I’m proud of Team GB. We stuck together, raced the race and ultimately it worked out.”

Dave Brailsford, British Cycling’s performance director, said: “What a ride by Lizzie. She was doing a rain dance this morning. She was praying for rain. She got more than she probably bargained for, but it was a brilliant, brilliant performance.

“Team GB’s got its first medal on the board, which gets the media off our backs, and let’s concentrate and get on a roll. That's what we need to do.”

The remarkable Vos, a present or former world champion on the road, track and cyclo-cross, was a strong pre-race favourite and such is the Dutch woman’s all round talent that she probed away on the Box Hill circuit launching a few attacks and covered breaks herself, worked like a trojan in the decisive break and then had enough in reserve to hold off Armitstead down The Mall in front of a home British crowd. There is only honour in running such an opponent so close.

In weather reminiscent of the deluge that greeted Nicole Cooke's gold medal in Beijing four years ago, Armitstead had managed to work her way into the decisive break of the day as the race exited the Box Hill circuit for the last time although with over 45km still to go and the peloton chasing hard there was still over an hour’s hard racing to negotiate.

She was in good company though. Along with Vos was Olga Zabelinskya, one of the world’s best time trial riders, and Shelly Olds a powerful American sprinter who immediately added impetus to the break. At first they extended their lead by fractions of seconds and then full seconds and the break was really beginning to take hold when the unlucky Olds punctured some 33 kilometres from home which presented a real dilemma, whether to press on with reduced numbers or to sit up and rejoin the peloton. Without even looking at each other for confirmation they started riding even harder. This was do or die.

So the chase was on, the scenario that all cycling fans love and eventually when the trio arrived at Richmond Park it dawned on everybody that the break was going to stick and that these were the three girls who would be standing on the podium in a few moments.

Coming from Otley, West Yorkshire, Armitstead was revelling in the bad weather. She was in her element as the clouds darkened and the heavens opened and she went for broke. At one stage she impatiently threw her expensive designer sun glasses to one side as they hindered her vison. Although if anybody should chance on them today she would quite like them back.

“In a funny sort of way going down to three riders helped because from then on we knew we were riding for medals,” recalls Armitstead of that unspoken moment.

“I felt good. I love riding in the rain and bad weather, I love the weather we get in the early season Classics. I would have liked a few more time checks but the important ones came through. I think the guy's pen wasn’t working on the whiteboard because of the rain so he was giving us a bit of sign language.”

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Boris Johnson - First medal for Team GB! Congratulations &lt;a href="http://www.twitter.com/L_ArmiTstead" target="_blank"&gt;@L_ArmiTstead&lt;/a&gt; on her splendid silver in the women's Road Race.&lt;/noframe&gt;

There was still the huge problem of outfoxing Vos in the sprint to overcome and although Armitstead might regret not going earlier her late bid for glory less than 200m from home was undoubtedly her best bet. A longer tactical duel with Vos and there was almost no chance, not yesterday anyway. A surprise attack late at the death, too late to counter, and she stood just a chance.

“She rode the perfect race and, just in the end, she didn’t quite have the legs to finish,” Brailsford said. “She was so strong and it was a magic performance. She deserves that silver medal though because she has worked so hard and I am delighted for her."